New territory to Stourbridge – and a couple of publications

Barry’s been ‘boat alone’ now since Friday morning, he left Merry Hill yesterday en route to Stourbridge where I plan to find him (!) some time tomorrow. I’ve forgotten how many locks he’s doing on his own, somewhere between 20 and 30 I think (forgive me, the nuances of the routes don’t stick in my geographically challenged female brain as much as they do for Barry).

I spoke with him yesterday and he’d not found any more coal – it’s looking challenging for him to have found any before I return. Oh dear! I have heard there’s another warm snap coming …

We’ve not done this section previously, so it’s unknown territory. I’m a little sad to miss it, as we may not do it again. But I’m here at mum and dad’s for a slightly extended period as he has a consultant psychiatrist coming to visit tomorrow, something I’ve been waiting a good while for, and I want to be here for the discussions.

Weekends away

Too-ing and fro-ing a little this week as I’m then returning here on Friday so mum can have a break and go to my elder sisters house for the weekend. Dad and I will have a jolly weekend together.

The following weekend we’ll be with my grandson celebrating his fifth birthday – woohoo!

Last weekend of November I’ll be heading down to Devon for my younger sister’s hen weekend, we’re staying somewhere with a spa which sounds a real treat.

The first weekend of December we’ll be heading down to Brighton to see my younger daughter – and another celebration, Barry’s 59th (yikes!) birthday.

Mid December and I’ve organised for the Walsh family to have a christmas meal together. We’re a close but miles apart whanau, extending from Malpas in Cheshire, down to Exeter, Southampton and of course Brighton, throwing in Lichfield and Worcester on the way down. We’re going to a local eatery to mum and dad with lots of room for 27 of us, The Honey Bee.

Latest publication/s

This morning I got the url for our latest article, published in the Gisborne Herald ‘Weekender’ on 4th October. If you’re interested in reading it click the link – ‘Experiencing the Seven Wonders’.

I believe we’re featuring in a magazine later this month too, called ‘Great British Food’, about food traders on canal boats. Barry was interviewed a few months ago now, so it’ll be interesting to see what eventuates from this.

Thanks Ray, it’s always a challenge to fine tune the articles to fit into a few hundred words! There’s so much more to write about the seven wonders. Would love to venture up to Bonny Scotland and experience the Falkirk Wheel. Maybe in 2016.

Haha re the locks. Barry has no problem doing any amount, it’s me that feels unnecessarily ‘guilty’ about leaving him to boat alone. I suspect he actually loves it, just doesn’t eat so well 😉

I was only wondering today whether the piece had been published – and made me laugh out loud about the Sandra and Barry Walsh! That happened before on a Gisborne Herald article. I did suggest when we got married that Barry could consider changing HIS name to Walsh, seeing as how he always used it when we booked in anywhere – so much simpler to spell than Teutenberg.

We’ll see if we can find a copy to read it, sadly not in our meagre budget to subscribe – or do we get a copy seeing as I wrote it?